What's the relationship between revelation - how we know what God wants - and halacha - what we actually do? Does God care about the particular wording of a blessing? Does God care if women wear tefillin? How do we know what God wants of us?
(16) On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the horn; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. (17) Moses led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. (18) Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for the LORD had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (19) The blare of the horn grew louder and louder. As Moses spoke, God answered him in thunder. (20) The LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. (21) The LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people not to break through to the LORD to gaze, lest many of them perish. (22) The priests also, who come near the LORD, must stay pure, lest the LORD break out against them.” (23) But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain and sanctify it.’” (24) So the LORD said to him, “Go down, and come back together with Aaron; but let not the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.” (25) And Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
Rambam (Maimonides) Helek: Sanhedrin, Chapter 10.
The Eighth Fundamental Principle is that the Torah came from God. We are to believe that the whole Torah was given us through Moses our Teacher entirely from God. When we call the Torah “God’s Word” we speak metaphorically. We do not know exactly how it reached us, but only that it came to us through Moses who acted like a secretary taking dictation. He wrote down the events of the time and the commandments, for which reason he is called “Lawgiver.” There is no distinction between a verse of Scripture like “The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim (Gen. 10:6), or “His wife’s name was Mehetabel and his concubine was Timna” (Gen. 36:39, 12) and one like “I am the Lord your God (Ex. 20:2), or “Hear, O Israel” (Deut. 6:4). All came from God, and all are the Torah of God, perfect, pure, holy and true. Anyone who says Moses wrote some passages on his own is regarded by our sages as an atheist or the worst kind of heretic, because he tries to distinguish essence from accident in the Torah.
Do We Believe in Torah MiSinai?
Richard Friedman “Who Wrote the Bible?”
“…nowhere in the Five Books of Moses themselves does the text say that he was the author. But the tradition that one person, Moses, alone wrote these books presented problems. People observed contradictions in the text. It would report events in a particular order, and later it would say that those same events happened in a different order. It would say that there were two of something, and elsewhere it would say that there were fourteen of the same thing. It would say that the Moabites did something, and later it would say it was the Midianites who did it. It would describe Moses as going to a Tabernacle in a chapter before Moses builds the Tabernacle. …included things Moses could not have known…the text, after all, gave an account of Moses’ death.”
Ben Zion Bokser “Judaism: Profile of a Faith”
“There is no contradiction between the discovery of a historical dimension in the sacred texts of Scripture and the belief that they are disclosures of God’s revelation. The human and the divine commingle in all of life.”
Sacred Cluster: The Core Values of Conservative Judaism
“For Conservative Jews, the Torah is no less sacred, if less central, than it was for their pre-modern ancestors. I use the word 'sacred' advisedly. The Torah is the foundation text of Judaism, the apex of an inverted pyramid of infinite commentary, not because it is divine, but because it is sacred, that is, adopted by the Jewish people as its spiritual font. The term skirts the divisive and futile question of origins, the fetid swamp of heresy. The sense of individual obligation, of being commanded, does not derive from divine authorship, but communal consent. The Written Torah, no less than the Oral Torah, reverberates with the divine-human encounter, with 'a minimum of revelation and a maximum of interpretation.' It is no longer possible to separate the tinder from the spark. What history can attest is that the community of Israel has always huddled in the warmth of the flame.”
Two Torahs
אמר רב יהודה אמר רב בשעה שעלה משה למרום מצאו להקב"ה שיושב וקושר כתרים לאותיות אמר לפניו רבש"ע מי מעכב על ידך אמר לו אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף כמה דורות ועקיבא בן יוסף שמו שעתיד לדרוש על כל קוץ וקוץ תילין תילין של הלכות אמר לפניו רבש"ע הראהו לי אמר לו חזור לאחורך הלך וישב בסוף שמונה שורות ולא היה יודע מה הן אומרים תשש כחו כיון שהגיע לדבר אחד אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי מנין לך אמר להן הלכה למשה מסיני נתיישבה דעתו חזר ובא לפני הקב"ה אמר לפניו רבונו של עולם יש לך אדם כזה ואתה נותן תורה ע"י אמר לו שתוק
R. Y’hudah said in the name of Rav: When Moses went to heaven he found God sitting and affixing crowns to the letters [of the Torah]. Moses said: “Master of the Universe, who detains your hand?” [I.e., why do you take so long to add these crowns to the letters?] God said to him: "A man will come to be at the end of many generations, and Akiva ben Yosef is his name. He will interpret on each and every tittle, piles and piles of laws.” He said to him: "Master of the Universe: Show him to me.” God said to him: "Turn around." He went and sat at the end of the eighth row, but he did not know what they were saying (didn't understand the teaching). He was ill at ease. When he arrived to one point, his students said to him: “Teacher, how do you know it is so?” He replied: “It is halacha given to Moses at Mount Sinai.” And he was comforted. Moses then said to God, Master of the Universe, you have a man of this caliber and you give the Torah through me? God told him to be silent.
To Understand Judaism, Understand the Talmud
(16) The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to make the sabbath for their generations, a perpetual covenant. (17) It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased and rested (souled).’
(ה) מסדר אדם שולחנו בערב שבת ואף על פי שאינו צריך אלא לכזית...וצריך לתקן ביתו מבעוד יום מפני כבוד השבת. ויהיה נר דלוק ושולחן ערוך לאכול ומטה מוצעת שכל אלו לכבוד שבת הן.
(5) A person should prepare his table on Friday, even if he is to eat the amount of food equal to an olive...One should prepare one's house while it is still day as an expression of respect for the Sabbath. There should be a lamp burning, a table prepared with food to eat, and a bed already made. All of these are ways to honor the Sabbath.
Rabbinic Authority
(9) and appear before the levitical priests, or the magistrate in charge in those days, and present your problem. When they have announced to you the verdict in the case,
וזה הוא תנור של עכנאי מאי עכנאי אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל שהקיפו דברים כעכנא זו וטמאוהו תנא באותו היום השיב רבי אליעזר כל תשובות שבעולם ולא קיבלו הימנו אמר להם אם הלכה כמותי חרוב זה יוכיח נעקר חרוב ממקומו מאה אמה ואמרי לה ארבע מאות אמה אמרו לו אין מביאין ראיה מן החרוב חזר ואמר להם אם הלכה כמותי אמת המים יוכיחו חזרו אמת המים לאחוריהם אמרו לו אין מביאין ראיה מאמת המים חזר ואמר להם אם הלכה כמותי כותלי בית המדרש יוכיחו הטו כותלי בית המדרש ליפול גער בהם רבי יהושע אמר להם אם תלמידי חכמים מנצחים זה את זה בהלכה אתם מה טיבכם לא נפלו מפני כבודו של רבי יהושע ולא זקפו מפני כבודו של ר"א ועדיין מטין ועומדין חזר ואמר להם אם הלכה כמותי מן השמים יוכיחו יצאתה בת קול ואמרה מה לכם אצל ר"א שהלכה כמותו בכ"מ עמד רבי יהושע על רגליו ואמר (דברים ל, יב) לא בשמים היא מאי לא בשמים היא אמר רבי ירמיה שכבר נתנה תורה מהר סיני אין אנו משגיחין בבת קול שכבר כתבת בהר סיני בתורה (שמות כג, ב) אחרי רבים להטות אשכחיה רבי נתן לאליהו א"ל מאי עביד קוב"ה בההיא שעתא א"ל קא חייך ואמר נצחוני בני נצחוני בני
This is the “oven of Achnai.” What is Achnai? Said Rabbi Yehudah in the name of Shmuel: That they surrounded it with words [of debate] like an Achnai snake, and declared it impure. It was taught: On that day R. Eliezer answered all the answers on earth and they did not accept it from him. He said, “If the law is like me, the carob tree will prove it”; the carob tree was uprooted from its place one hundred Amah, some say four hundred Amah. They said: “We do not bring proof from a carob tree.”... He went and said “If the law is like me the water channel will prove it”; the water channel flowed in reverse direction. They said: “We do not bring proof from a water channel.” He went and said “If the law is as I say the walls of the House of Study will prove it”; the walls of the House of Study inclined to fall. R. Yehoshua protested at them, saying to them “If scholars defeat each other in the law, how does it better you?” They did not fall because of the honor of R.Yehoshua and they did not straighten, because of the honor of R. Eliezer, and they still incline and stand.... [R. Eliezer] went and said, “If the law is like me, from Heaven they will prove it”; a heavenly voice came out and said, “What have you with R. Eliezer, who the law is like him in every place?” R. Yehoshua stood on his feet and said “[The Torah] is not in heaven,” (Deuteronomy 30:12). What does "[The Torah] is not in heaven" mean? R. Yirmiyah said: “That the Torah was already given at Sinai, we do not pay attention to a heavenly voice, since You already wrote at Sinai in the Torah, “After the majority to incline,” (Exodus 23:2). R. Natan met the prophet Elijah and said to him, “What did the Holy One Blessed be He do in that hour?” He said to him: “He smiled and said, “My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me.”
Does this mean God is totally disconnected from what we do? Why all the rules then? Why obey any of the rules if the rules themselves don't represent God's will? Could it be God's will that we follow the rules of the community, the Jewish people? "Lo b'shamayim hee" as protection against those who dare to speak in God's name.
How Do We Hear God?
Elliot Dorff “Conservative Judaism”
“…revelation can occur in any event from the most common to the most unusual: what marks an event as a revelation of God is not that the event itself is of a special character, but that it is interpreted as such by a human community…whether it is a revelation of God or not depends on whether the Jewish community accepts it as such…the Jewish community determines not only what events shall count as revelations; it also decides how those revelations are to be interpreted and applied.”
(יד) רַבִּי נְהוֹרַאי אוֹמֵר, הֱוֵי גוֹלֶה לִמְקוֹם תּוֹרָה, וְאַל תֹּאמַר שֶׁהִיא תָבֹא אַחֲרֶיךָ, שֶׁחֲבֵרֶיךָ יְקַיְּמוּהָ בְיָדֶךָ. וְאֶל בִּינָתְךָ אַל תִּשָּׁעֵן (משלי ג):
(14) Rabbi Nehorai says: Exile yourself to a place of Torah, and do not say that it will follow after you, that your colleagues will make it yours. Do not rely on your understanding.
Timeline of Jewish Legal Texts
|
Time |
Text |
Author |
|
3500BCE to 500BCE |
Torah |
God, Moses, Ezra…J,E,P,D |
|
1200BCE to 160BCE |
Balance of Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) |
Joshua, David, prophets, ? |
|
200BCE to 220CE |
Mishnah Tosefta Baraitot |
Tannaim (R. Yehuda haNasi) |
|
220 |
Mishnah |
R. Yehuda haNasi edits the Mishnah |
|
220 to ~430 |
Gemara (Palestinian, or Yerushalmi) |
Amoraim |
|
220 to ~550 |
Gemara (Babylonian, or Bavli) |
Amoraim |
|
550 to 650 |
Gemara (Babylonian) |
Saboraim –edited the Bavli |
|
650 to 1050 |
Responsa literature |
Geonim |
|
1000 to 1550 |
Commentaries, responsa, law codes |
Rishonim |
|
1040 to 1105 |
Rashi’s commentary on Torah and Talmud |
R. Shlomo Yitzchaki (RASHI) |
|
1100 to 1300 |
Tosafot |
Rashi’s grandchildren and colleagues |
|
1135 to 1204 |
Mishneh Torah |
R. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, a.k.a. RAMBAM) |
|
1550 |
Shulhan Arukh |
R. Joseph Karo |
|
1550 to present |
Commentaries, responsa, law codes |
Acharonim |
Glossary:
Torah: the Pentateuch, Five Books of Moses. The Written Law.
Tanakh: abbreviation for Torah, Nevi’im (prophets), Ketuvim (writings); the Hebrew Bible
Talmud: collection of Oral Law; divided into Mishnah and Gemara.
Shas: another term for the Talmud. Based on the Hebrew for “six orders”
Mishnah: most authoritative selection of Tannaitic material. Organized into six orders: 1) zeraim--seeds, agriculture; 2) moed--holidays; 3) nashim--women, inheritance, marriage, etc.; 4) nezikim--damages, civil and criminal codes, laws of courts, evidence; 5) kodashim--sacrifices; 6) toharot--purity.
Tosefta: “additions,” a collection of Tannaitic material not included in the Mishnah
Baraitot: “outside,” all Tannaitic material not included in the Mishnah, includes Tosefta and assorted baraitot found in the Gemara
Gemara: discussion on the material in the Mishnah. Follows the organization of the Mishnah. Pagination and layout standardized since the first printed edition in Venice, 1520. “Vilna Shas” includes set of commentators in the back.
Responsa: Jewish halachic (legal) decisions, reponse to a question
Tosafot: Talmud commentary by Rashi’s grandsons and colleagues
Mishneh Torah: 1st collection of Jewish Law
Shulhan Arukh: most authoritative collection of Jewish Law